Murray Goulden
@murraygoulden.bsky.social
Sociologist of the digital and everyday, and the political economies intertwined • Move slow and fix things.
Assoc. Prof U Nottingham.
Assoc. Prof U Nottingham.
5. Contra-Marcus Brownlee's take, the stakes here in the home are definitely *not* lower than they are for self-driving cars!
6. But on that subject, expect this promised autonomous future to still be caveated-to-the-point-of-being-vapourware in another decade, just as self-driving cars have been.
6. But on that subject, expect this promised autonomous future to still be caveated-to-the-point-of-being-vapourware in another decade, just as self-driving cars have been.
October 31, 2025 at 10:47 AM
5. Contra-Marcus Brownlee's take, the stakes here in the home are definitely *not* lower than they are for self-driving cars!
6. But on that subject, expect this promised autonomous future to still be caveated-to-the-point-of-being-vapourware in another decade, just as self-driving cars have been.
6. But on that subject, expect this promised autonomous future to still be caveated-to-the-point-of-being-vapourware in another decade, just as self-driving cars have been.
4. It will be safe to occupants because it 'can't lift heavy things or hot things'? So it can't cook or do many common domestic tasks? The domestic version of the Trolley Problem: be useful and dangerous, or useless and safe?
October 31, 2025 at 10:47 AM
4. It will be safe to occupants because it 'can't lift heavy things or hot things'? So it can't cook or do many common domestic tasks? The domestic version of the Trolley Problem: be useful and dangerous, or useless and safe?
2. credit to company for not doing usual Musk-style deception of hiding the human puppeteering the "AI", though they very much do obscure the class realities of hidden AI labour.
3. An image of what this spotlessly soft-textured robot will look like after a month in a typical family home.
3. An image of what this spotlessly soft-textured robot will look like after a month in a typical family home.
October 31, 2025 at 10:47 AM
2. credit to company for not doing usual Musk-style deception of hiding the human puppeteering the "AI", though they very much do obscure the class realities of hidden AI labour.
3. An image of what this spotlessly soft-textured robot will look like after a month in a typical family home.
3. An image of what this spotlessly soft-textured robot will look like after a month in a typical family home.
We invoke the concept of ‘mundane resistance’ to describe the ways in which smart tech comes to be diminished in the interplay between household members in the course of their everyday participation in its moral economy, and link this to the very expensive failure of Big Tech's smart home vision.
July 28, 2025 at 8:39 AM
We invoke the concept of ‘mundane resistance’ to describe the ways in which smart tech comes to be diminished in the interplay between household members in the course of their everyday participation in its moral economy, and link this to the very expensive failure of Big Tech's smart home vision.
The only element of this which successfully argues for AI is that it's almost certain you will never read an AI output as stupid as what this human has produced here.
March 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
The only element of this which successfully argues for AI is that it's almost certain you will never read an AI output as stupid as what this human has produced here.
I take it back, this bit is even worse. No Jeanette, the process of mutual socialisation through which culture emerges is not the same as a corporation unilaterally privatising that culture in order to profit from it. Those two things are different.
March 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
I take it back, this bit is even worse. No Jeanette, the process of mutual socialisation through which culture emerges is not the same as a corporation unilaterally privatising that culture in order to profit from it. Those two things are different.
This is the real triumph here. In the same paragraph that Winterson acknowledges that AI is regurgitating the work of her profession, she heralds it as an "alternative way of seeing"!
March 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
This is the real triumph here. In the same paragraph that Winterson acknowledges that AI is regurgitating the work of her profession, she heralds it as an "alternative way of seeing"!
Then she makes the Clever Hans mistake of confusing imitation for understanding.
March 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Then she makes the Clever Hans mistake of confusing imitation for understanding.
Bold opening: Winterson invokes humanity's failure to address climate change - which is perhaps best signified by us burning country-sized resources on using AI to make Trump memes - as a reason to embrace AI.
March 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Bold opening: Winterson invokes humanity's failure to address climate change - which is perhaps best signified by us burning country-sized resources on using AI to make Trump memes - as a reason to embrace AI.
I guess it is educational in preparing them for the dissonance of a society where everyone is told to take metrics incredibly seriously, whilst simultaneously being coached to remorsely game them.
March 8, 2025 at 10:06 AM
I guess it is educational in preparing them for the dissonance of a society where everyone is told to take metrics incredibly seriously, whilst simultaneously being coached to remorsely game them.